All posts for the month October, 2009

This is another fine song from Intezar, which is a musical masterpiece in Pakistani cinema. I posted my favorite songs from this film earler, here.

This is one of the songs that I listen to a lot on my homemade Noor Jehan compilation. I’ve posted a few links to another song from Koel before – this film has several songs that are absolutely beautiful.

A nice song by Suraiya in 1947, when she was just 18. Parwana was also the last film starring K.L. Saigal (I’ll have to post more of K.L. Saigal sometime…).

I like the songs that Geeta Dutt (or, rather, Geeta Roy) sang in Nishana (1950). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video clip, but it’s certainly worth posting just for the audio.

There’s a good Khurshid Anwar tribute site, with lots of MP3s. The main link contains only his earlier, Hindi film music, but then if you go to the added links, you’ll find a lot of his Pakistani film music, too.

More fabulous stuff from Nagina (1951). I posted this one once before too, but the clip was removed, and besides, now we get to see it with subtitles, thanks to Tom’s post at Dailymotion. (You might notice that I just replaced the clip in the last post with his subtitled version too.)

This venture to the Gold Diggers of 1933 was inspired by an interesting obituary for the Busby Berkeley chorus girl Dorothy Coonan-Wellman that appeared in the blog History Is Made At Night. I think it has striking relevance for the victims of the current Great Recession (myself included). Also, aside from the obvious connections between Busby Berkeley and a whole bunch of Bollywood dance scenes, I see a special connection in the segment beginning at about 0:46 – is that a reference to Lakshmi? (It certainly would fit…)

No, I’m not talking about the fictional one that you danced with Gopi Krishna at the end of Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje; I’m talking about the competition for best peacock dance. Hypothetically, if I had to pick one most favorite, I think I might say that you beat out Vyjayanthimala and Padmini. Though maybe not as skilled as those two goddesses of classical cinema dance, you do have a great style and you have the most wonderful expressions. Add to that fantastic costumes and set designs (credit the hubbie?), a few seconds of dancing at the end by Gopi Krishna (who was amazing throughout this film as both a dancer and dance director), and some very uplifting and addictive music by Vasant Desai, and… Well, these are all reasons why this may be my favorite peacock dance…possibly.

P.S. My overall opinion of this movie: Dance performances breathtaking and main performers great, music very enjoyable, visuals often fantastic, story a mixed bag, and most of the main characters just a bit irritating. I might elaborate sometime…

This isn’t Little India, it’s about a dozen blocks away, much closer to my present house (where my neighbors play salsa more than anything else)… And it’s just the regular old deli I stop in to get soda late at night. I had just taken the bus home, and I’d been listening on my headphones to the Madhosh soundtrack. So then I walked into this regular old deli and I heard young Lata’s voice again, very loud and clear. It was very disorienting… I hadn’t looked at the TV yet when the guy was ringing up the soda (the screen was behind me) and so I asked him “What film is that?” And then I knew in a second but at the same time he told me “Barsaat,” and then he started to explain that Barsaat was an old, classic Indian film and I was saying, “I know, I know,” but he went on explaining a little because, you know, I’m just a white guy (sigh)… [Note a couple of hours later: OK, I was just being funny here. There was nothing frustrating about this exchange. It wasn’t like those experiences in my sem-famous Tales of Two White Men post. And I’m looking forward to getting Diet Pepsi there again soon, so I can see what the next cinema treat will be. I’ll just have to make sure to go in at about 1 am – and I’ll be sure to report afterwards.]

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